Reaching out to customers outside its core U.S. market, open source middleware vendor JBoss Tuesday kicked off its first user conference in Barcelona by announcing a handful of product enhancements and a new regional sales executive.
Reaching out to customers outside its core U.S. market, open source middleware vendor JBoss Tuesday kicked off its first user conference in Barcelona by announcing a handful of product enhancements and a new regional sales executive.
The Atlanta software company said it has added Drools, an open source rules engine, to its Java middleware line-up. The software is written in Java but can also run on Microsoft’s .Net platform. It is based on the Rete algorithm, an object-oriented interface that allows for more natural expression of business rules, JBoss said.
The addition of Drools is another critical step in the evolution of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) as an open source platform for service-oriented architecture (SOA) systems, JBoss said.
JEMS is composed of a number of open source products, including the JBoss application server, portal software and business process management engine, that have been integrated in a single offering. The components can be used together or individually. They compete with middleware from IBM, BEA, Oracle and others.
Because the JBoss middleware is open source, it is free to download. JBoss makes money by selling support contracts.
Another enhancement being presented to users and developers in Barcelona is a new version of the company’s open source business process management (BPM) engine, JBoss jBPM 3.0.
BMP software is used to manage a series of transactions involving separate applications into an automated flow of events. Companies, for instance, could use the software to automate the steps necessary to approve and reimburse expense reports. JBoss added BMP to its growing portfolio of open source software last year when it hired Tom Baeyens, founder and lead developer of jBpm.
The new version, which was led through development by Baeyens, offers extended task management and a new pluggable architecture, among other features, JBoss said.
JBoss World Barcelona 2005, which runs through Thursday, was also used to announce the appointment of Michel Goossens as vice president of sales and marketing for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Goossens will work out of Belgium and the U.K.
